Adventures of Being a Student/Housewife - Part 2

In today's installment, I will be blogging about the second recipe I just tried: Beef Barley Soup, courtesy of my sister, Rebecca!

Here is the recipe:

Beef and Barley Soup
3/4 cup pearl barley
1 Tbs minced garlic
6-8 cups beef stock (or water with bullion if you don't have beef stock on hand)
1 tsp black pepper
Mix together in large soup pot and boil rapidly for about 20 minutes. Then add:
2 cups chopped, cooked steak
2 carrots, chopped
1 onion, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
1 can of stewed Italian tomatoes, with juice (use kitchen shears to cut tomatoes in the can so they are bite sized)
1 Bay leaf
any other spices that sound good (like Oregano, Basil, Rosemary, etc)
Reduce heat and simmer for about 2 hours.
Serve with warm, buttered bread.

Because this soup recipe is fairly easy, I'm just going to post the pictures below with minimal comments:)

Now if you're like me, you don't know what pearl barley is, or where to find it in your local supermarket.

This can be found next to the rice. However, I was unable to find it at Trader Joe's or at the Walmart Grocery Center, but you're likely to find it a Raley's, a local supermarket, or other whole foods types of stores.

Boil your first three ingredients. If you're using bouillon, you can just throw the cubes directly into the soup mix, as the boiling water will break them down.

You will have enough time to grill your steak (unseasoned) while the first three ingredients are boiling. 

While cooking your steak that is being grilled while your soup boils;) you will have time to chop up your celery, carrots, and onions. If you wish, they also sell these three ingredients together in a "soup base" container in the fresh produce department. I believe it is less than four dollars at Trader Joe's, although I prefer to chop myself:)

The finished meat. NOTE: I did not cook the meat all the way through because you will be simmering for two hours! However, I did cut up the meat into smaller pieces (as seen above) than as seen in the first photo. Bite size is nice!

To my tastes, I also added these three ingredients in addition to the original seasonings.

Ready to start simmering!

The best part of cooking on Sundays is the free help!

Two hours later...

(The bread above is cooked with olive oil, basil, and parsley ... mmm!!)

Approval.

"Stop taking photos! Let's eat!!"

Enjoy!